The Beatles - I've Just Seen a Face

I'm at O'Hare and my phone isn't special enough to have two browsers open. Until I get to a computer, hearing this song is a DIY project for you. Get to it.

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Sundowner - As the Crow Flies

I was hoping for so much more from the newest Sundowner, but this song made the album.  To be fair, tonight was the first time I listened to the album, and dozens of my favorite albums didn't make me think, 'I have to listen to this album again as soon as it's over!'  So, out of rotation it will go to sweeten.

"I think I can make a song somehow."

Sundowner - As the Crow Flies

3/24/2011

Mirah - The Dogs of B.A.

This was the first Mirah song I ever heard, and it remains my favorite of hers.  It came up while wandering into a bookstore today and gave me an idea.  It looks completely possible to spend a week in B.A. and Montevideo for $200.  Looks like I have some further work to do.

Mirah - The Dogs of B.A.

3/24

Phantogram - When I'm Small

Heard the album on the recommendation of a friend and it came out on top.  Wait for the punchline, it's delivered with, what sounds like glee and violins.

Phantogram - When I'm Small

3/22/2011

You know, if I had a smarter phone I'd get posts in on the day they should be.

Jawbreaker - Jet Black

This song is so irritatingly passive aggressive.  That isn't totally outside the average for Jawbreaker, and Dear You is a manic album of hope and dregs.  With Dear You, I think there's no other artist that I listen to regularly that was so close to tremendous success, but walked out a door and fell a dozen stories.  I didn't hear this album until 1999; it was out of print for such a long time and really hard to find.

Yet again, a song that is so far from how I've felt during the day cinches the spot.  Wash your hands of it all, already!

"This is the part.  I wouldn't show you; the part where you say, 'I don't even know you.'  This is your cue, be glad that it's through."

P.S.  The recorded speech at the beginning and end is from Annie Hall.  I saw Annie Hall years after I had first heard this song, and even if the movie would not have been great, that made a rainy Boston Valentine's day bright.

Pairing this song with Joan of Arc clips is brilliant, and puts a totally different perspective to the lyrics.  Especially the quoted lyrics above.  A sad song is martyrdom, I suppose.  Cheers Jeanne!

Jawbreaker - Jet Black

Neil Young - Cinnamon Girl

Two A.M. Sunday morning, 3/20/2011.

It was a playlist I wasn't planning on making, and it was running into its eighth hour.  The chili cook off was a good time, with far, far too many drinks.

Unrelated to the song, but I always thought the cover of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere looked like he was standing on one of the dog's hind legs so it wouldn't run off before the picture was taken.

Neil Young - Cinnamon Girl

N*E*R*D* - Things Are Getting Better

My favorite track by N*E*R*D*, this is a song that always puts a smile on my face.  Soundtrack to thawed streets and a big stupid grin.

N*E*R*D* - Things Are Getting Better 

song for 3/19/2011

Mark Kozelek - Walk All Over You

Since I never listened to much AC/DC, I had no idea this wasn't an original at first.  It makes some sense, since it is so opposite much of Kozelek's own writing.  This song didn't win today solely on its own merit.  I listened to all the Kozelek that I owned today, and the sentiment of the Red House Painters wasn't really catching me.  The opposition this song puts toward all the other songs on the Mark Kozelek solo album is what won the top spot.

Mark Kozelek - Walk All Over You

The Dead Milkmen - Beach Party Vietnam

Song for 3/17

Cook your hotdogs with napalm.

The Dead Milkmen - Beach Party Vietnam

Idlewild - Love Steals Us From Loneliness

The Idlewild song I was looking for wasn't on YouTube.  I had completely forgotten the album that the selected song came from existed.  I know I owned it; I know I listend to it many times when I first bought it.  Worst of all, this was one of those CDs that had DRM and could not be ripped by iTunes or the other media player I was using at the time.

The album probably went 5 years from being played last, and only ended up here due to technicality.  "You and I Are Both Away" was the winner by a slim margin.  Like many Idlewild songs it seems unnecessarily depressing, but damn he has such a great voice.

I never looked up any Idlewild videos before, perhaps I should have.

Idlewild - Love Steals Us From Loneliness

Jenny Owen Youngs - Voice On Tape

3/15 post delayed due to not being indoors for hours:

I don't really enjoy the rest of this album.  I saw Jenny Owen Youngs on the recommendation of a friend a few years ago.  There may have been ten people at Schubas, and that would be generous on the high end of estimating.  The show was enjoyable, but never really felt like listing to the album I picked up.

In case you were wondering, yes, she is one of the people responsible for that surge of terrible rap covers that the world suffered through in 2001-2007.

Jenny Owen Youngs - Voice On Tape

Tchaikovsky - Old French Song

This has always been one of my favorite songs to play on the piano.  Above all other classical pieces, I think this is the most calming.  I'm not sure what's going on with the blue hands in the video.  If you prefer, you can just search the song and watch any number of 5-8 year olds playing it.

Tchaikovsky - Old French Song

Soul Coughing - Screenwriter's Blues

This was the first song chosen randomly after Free Fallin had finished playing on the radio.  These happen to be the only songs I know of that reference Reseda, CA.  This coincidence made me put both of these songs head to head, and I preferred Soul Coughing this morning, as I cruised past the 3 separate police blockades that did not seem interested in pulling anyone over.

"It is 5 am, and you are listening to Los Angeles...It is a beautiful night out there, and the radio man says rock and roll lives."

Soul Coughing - Screenwriter's Blues

Alkaline Trio - Jaked On Green Beers

On the way to the Union Station we passed the dyed green Chicago river.  As I was running through the station to catch my train I nearly ran into a few different couples that were having arguments at different stages of violence.

One man looked shocked, like he'd just been slapped or given some kind of awful news; the woman nearest him kept screaming.  As I ran past them, he started screaming back.  The other couple was pushing each other; it really looked like a competition to see who was going to fall first.  It might have started out as a joke but they were pushing each other harder and harder; neither of them were smiling, and she looked incredibly angry.  Another couple further down looked thrilled to be with one another; one was slumped to the ground with his head between his knees and she glared into the distance with her arms crossed.

I made it to my train two minutes before it left.

This song celebrating your dislike for each other is for you, people dressed up in green, trying to win your battles in the tunnels below Union Station.

If you must dye your beer green, start with a decent brew.

Alkaline Trio - Jaked On Green Beers

Snowden - Between the Rent and Me

I wasn't home yesterday, so here's another late delivery.

Snowden - Between the Rent and Me

Years ago this was also a purchase from a Boston bargain bin.  I remember listening to this song on repeat for at least twenty minutes one night, huddled in a doorway waiting for the rain to at least let up enough to see more than 20 feet ahead of me on a walk home from Allston to Jamaica Plain.

This is where I realize my trouble comes with bluest eyes, oh...

Song for 3/11/11.

Against Me! - Thrash Unreal

From another band, this song would have seemed crass.  The video doesn't really add to the song though; I just keep using YouTube links to avoid those popups on Mog and other sites.

This song is from the first album I picked up from Against Me!.  It was on one of the sale spinners at Newbury Comics, and I had heard some good things, so I took it home with my other purchases.

They don't know nothing about redemption.  They don't know nothing about recovery.

Take nothing back.

Against Me! - Thrash Unreal

Morrissey - Why Don't You Find Out for Yourself

Morrissey will always wait to bushwhack you with some sort of maudlin as you go about your life.  Out of all the musicians I listen to, I most empathize with disagreements on all points Morrissey.  However, there's something wonderful in his stubborn refusal to be anything more than a 50 year old man in a seventeen year old's mind.  That is a very smart, world weary,  and spiteful teenager, mind you.

I do wish Morrissey was my androgynous, cynical, vegan, and creepy uncle.  Imagine the possibilities at holidays.

What do you think about the chances this year for the Cubs?  "Don't rake up my mistakes, I know exactly what they are."  Sure, but how do you think they'll do?  "The sanest days are mad."  Interesting.  Do you think they'll at least edge out the Pirates?  "Long may it last.  Why don't you find out for yourself?  Then you'll see the glass hidden in the grass."  Yeah, Merry Christmas.  "Sink down to my heart, that's just the way it goes."  And a happy New Year.

Ugh, work starts in 5 hours.

Morrissey - Why Don't You Find Out for Yourself

Iron & Wine - Each Coming Night

This was really tough to choose today.  I listened to three Iron & Wine albums in the usual full random selection.  Our Endless Numbered Days is an album I have too long neglected.  I remember it was one of the last albums I purchased from Record Breakers in Arlington Heights, a store where I found many new bands and spent thousands of dollars in.

Now I have to listen to the whole album again to make a choice.  Back with that later.

After a long walk in the rain, I came to the decision of Each Coming Night.  All the other songs on the album fell very close to the mark, but this was a perfect balance.  Equal parts remembrance, looking forward, and salvation make a scene that is without regret, hopeful, and without enough details to make you think this is for something ended or something eternal and bright.

Iron & Wine - Each Coming Night

Light strikes a deal with the coming night.

Girl Talk - What If...

I can't find the track anywhere, since Sony yanked the one youtube link.  However, you'll catch the drift of Girl Talk from the other link below.

Often grating to the point of irritation, but a track at a time could pull you back to long drives scanning for the radio for something you wanted to listen to, bouncing back and forth among different stations for a distraction.

Girl Talk - Some festival

The sample intro to What If made me wonder who sneaked "What If God Was One of Us" onto one of my hard drives.  As Soon as I heard, "What if God [skip/beat] is a project bitch?" I was able to smile and go back to my reading.

Lali Puna - Faking the Books

Along the lines of yesterday's post.  This is a track and and artist that is often ambivalent.  I never viewed this song as pessimistic until I read the lyrics.  I wouldn't say Lali Puna is an incredibly upbeat band, largely due to the instrumentation.


Sure, from one slant, it isn't heaven, there's faking, there's going through sharing how much it isn't heaven. BUT! 


We’ve been wrong before
There is a lot that we survived

I think that can go with the rest of the song.  Perhaps wrong, wrong, wrong again.  Regardless, her voice is beautiful, and she needs to dip into some stronger solo work that doesn't rely on well crafted beats.

Lali Puna - Faking the Books

Azure Ray - Nothing Like a Song

I first found Azure Ray on a mix cd a friend made me in 2003.  Very few of their songs and the songs of their subsequent solo projects are particularly uplifting, but the voices of Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor are both haunting.  Like Morrissey, Nico, and the Eels, perhaps the part of their songs that are uplifting is the remove that you can experience their lyrics as:

It is not your life, therefore, sing a different song.

Azure Ray - Nothing Like a Song

I'm not what you write in your books, no, I'm nothing like a song.

Underworld - Luetin

Underworld is a band whose albums I can rarely listen to straight through.  I'm rarely patient enough for electronic tracks that go on for more than seven minutes.  This song and occasionally Born Slippy are two that I do come back to fairly regularly.

song for 3/5/2011

Underworld - Luetin

Mike Doughty - Your Misfortune

I can be the right notion in the meantime, warm you like the sunshine.

Song for 3/4/11

Don't forget to stand in the light.

Mike Doughty - Your Misfortune

Eels - The Mansions of Los Feliz

It's just me, myself, and the secrets that live inside the walls of the mansions of Los Feliz.

Eels - The Mansions of Los Feliz

Xiu Xiu - Hello From Eau Claire

I'll get back on schedule someday.  Song for 3/2.

Xiu Xiu - Hello From Eau Claire

Sebadoh - Together or Alone

I don't know that I've listened to a whole Sebadoh album in years.  I should fix that tomorrow.

This was part of a string of early 90s that my iPod landed on out of 20,000 tracks on random this evening.  PPPantless by Don Cabellero was runner up.

Sebadoh - Together or Alone